MANILA, Philippines -- Filipino Catholic lay groups have denounced their Western counterparts who demanded recently that Pope Benedict XVI lift the Church ban on artificial birth control methods.

The Christian Family Movement (CFM) and Couples for Christ Foundation for Family and Life (CFC-FFL) both reaffirmed the 40-year-old Religious Encyclical on the Regulation of Birth, or Humanae Vitae, which prohibits the use of artificial contraceptives.

Both groups attended last Friday’s prayer vigil held at the University of Santo Tomas in Manila to mark the 40th anniversary of Humanae Vitae, the encyclical issued by Pope Paul VI at the height of the sexual revolution of the 1960s.

CFM president Zenaida Capistrano said her group sided with the Church on its teachings on birth control.

The Church considers contraceptive pills, intrauterine devices and condoms, as well as surgical interventions like vasectomy and tubal ligation, to be “immoral.” It views abortion as a grievous sin.

Fr. Melvin Castro, executive secretary of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines’ Commission for Family and Life, belittled the open letter that appeared in an Italian newspaper urging the Pope to lift the ban on artificial contraceptives.

The ad was paid for by about 50 Catholic lay groups from the United States and Europe.

It described Humanae Vitae as a “failure” that “has had a catastrophic impact on the poor and powerless around the world, endangering women’s lives and leaving millions at risk of HIV.”

Castro said the open letter was mere “propaganda” and that the dissension within the Church was not new.

“Forty years ago, there were many who opposed Humanae Vitae. Forty years later, it’s still the same,” he said.

CFC-FFL spokesperson Nonong Contreras criticized the foreign groups opposed to the Vatican decree.

He raised doubts about some of the assertions made, particularly the one on the prohibition contributing to the rise of HIV-AIDS.

“There has been no conclusive empirical data and statistical evidence presented by any group, including these lay groups, [to support that],” he said.

The solution is not widespread access to condoms and pills, he said, but better natural family planning methods.

“The solution lies in abstinence in unsafe periods. In Nicaragua, natural family planning efforts in depressed areas were successful at a 98-percent rate,” he said.